Meghan Chase Has A Secret Destiny One She Could Never Have ImaginedSomething Has Always Felt Slightly Off In Meghan S Life, Ever Since Her Father Disappeared Before Her Eyes When She Was Six She Has Never Quite Fit In At School Or At HomeWhen A Dark Stranger Begins Watching Her From Afar, And Her Prankster Best Friend Becomes Strangely Protective Of Her, Meghan Senses That Everything She S Known Is About To ChangeBut She Could Never Have Guessed The Truth That She Is The Daughter Of A Mythical Faery King And Is A Pawn In A Deadly War Now Meghan Will Learn Just How Far She Ll Go To Save Someone She Cares About, To Stop A Mysterious Evil, No Faery Creature Dare Face And To Find Love With A Young Prince Who Might Rather See Her Dead Than Let Her Touch His Icy Heart

Julie Kagawa

10 thoughts on “The Iron King (The Iron Fey, #1) ”

ICOFA InCase of Fairy Abduction In the event that you are abducted by fairies, please adhere to the following guidelines so that I don t have to watch or read about you blundering through fairyland like an incompetent idiot.1 Never thank a fairy for services rendered.2 Never eat fairy food.3 Never dance with fairies.4 Never strike a bargain with a fairy unless you ve agreed on the fine points The Iron King is a book about a sixteen year old girl, Meghan Chase Can I advise all people reading this review never be sixteen It s a horrible age Avoid it as much as you can Meghan is dragged into the fairy world when her younger brother is replaced by a changling She soon discovers she has deeper ties to fairy than she d originally thought.The Iron King, like many modern day fairy tales, tries to adhere to old school fairy myths yet still manages to balls up and humanize certain fairies with all the eagerness a coming of age book about a sixteen year old on a magical adventure CAN balls up and humanize fairies I take particular exception to the depiction of famous fairy Robin Puck s character and the introduction of romantic lead, Ash The fact that Robin Puck has been turned from a wicked, mischeivous sprite with a penchant for disaster, into competition for a sixteen year old s affections was really just traumatizing to me Suddenly Puck is sexy, serious, occasionally brooding and suave Excuse me while I choke back tears and reread A Midsummer Night s Dream.We ve gone from To image error

3rd reread May 15, 2017 I still love this book to pieces Ash, you sexy motherfucker.I know that a lot of people might be surprised that I like this book, considering I tend to rip other fantasy YA to pieces I just don t think it s bad I don t think Meghan was annoying, she reacted appropriately freaked out at times, but that s reasonable I think Ash is HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG there s a reason he s one of my 3 book boyfriends Grimalkin is absolutely a devilish little delight Puck was a bit grating, but he was appropriate, given his character The Nevernever is enchantment itself The only thing that really bothered me was the fact that Ash and Meghan seemed to fall for each other so easily, with so little evidence Overall, this is still a rock solid book that I evidently love through an unprecedented three readings Original review I don t think there s anything further I can add to what s already been said about this legendary book There is so much to love, and very little I found objectionable This is my second time reading it, with a critical view, and I found that I enjoy it even this time around.The plot in a nutshell Meghan s little brother Ethan has been acting strange, and it turns out he has been replaced by a changeling She and her long time best friend Robbie popularly known as Robin Goodfellow, or Puck goes into the Nevernever to rescue him Along the way, she discovers the truth about herself, encounters numerous dangers and a cat , and falls in love.Sounds like your typical YA fantasy, right Oh, but this is so much As someone with a short temper for TSTL characters and unbelievable characters, I can tell you that there is nothing I can complain about here.I was starting to write a list of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but there is so few of the latter two And whatever there is that is ugly in this book is so eloquently described that it becomes beautiful, if only the writing So here s the list of everything I love about this book.The settingThe Nevernever, in all of its lands and aspects, are beautifully and vividly described.A warm breeze blew into the closet, carrying with it a shocking assortment of smells smells that should not be together in one place Crushed leaves and cinnamon, smoke and apples, fresh earth, lavender, and the faint, cloying scent of rot and decay For a moment, I caught a tang of something metallic and coppery, wrapped around the smell of rot, but it was gone in the next breath And the creaturesIn the scattered moonlight, faeries danced and sang and laughed, calling out to me from a distance Satyrs whistled tunes on their pipes, piskies buzzed through the air on gossamer wings, and willowy dryads danced through the trees, their slender bodies waving like grass in the wind.The writing and environment so often makes or breaks a book, and in this case, it enhances the feel of a beautiful and dangerous world.The charactersMeghan is such a fantastic heroine She is strong, tough, but so vulnerable She acts impulsively sometimes, but never endangers herself or her loved ones needlessly.Meghan has her faults she is obstinate and headstrong at times, but it s in a believable and rather sympathetic manner.I slipped into the baggy jeans and the wrinkled, smelly T shirt, feeling a nasty glow of satisfaction as they slid comfortably over my skin Burn my things, will he I thought, dragging my sneakers out and shoving my feet into them.Little acts of rebellionwho among us hasn t dressed improperly for an important occasion as a teenager Meghan s little acts of foolishness are largely harmless, the defiance of a teenager instead of willful obstinacy, and I like her all the for it.Puck is Puck He is capricious, a trickster, but he has depth than that of a court jester He is truly devoted to Meghan, and the mistakes that he made in the past has made him even protective of her Puck is even willing to endanger himself and endure punishment for the sake of his friend, and I am glad that he is by Meghan s side as she continues her quest He adds an element of lightness to the serious feel of the novel, and his seemingly lighthearted stance is invaluable in helping Meghan keep her spirits up when things are fearful.Ash Oh man, what a dreamboat I love a good reformed rake in my Regency novel, and while this is in no way a similar story, Ash is the kind of bad boy that s every fangirl s dream He is dark, scarred he has a difficult past and a hard life as the son of Mab His courtship with Meghanif it can be called that, is a rough one They re enemies, and he did try to kill her What I stared at him in disbelief You tried to kill me Technically, I was trying to kill Puck You just happened to be there But yes, if I d had the shot, I would have taken it Their reluctant alliance and their growing feelings for each other are so gradual that I can t even recall the exact moment when Meghan falls for Ashor hell, when I fell for Ash.Grimalkin I don t think I ve ever met a talking cat I didn t like I ve loved talking cat guides in every fictional reincarnation I ve ever read, be it the Cheshire Cat or Edgewood Dirk, and I can say no less about him in this book I love his selfishness, his wicked sense of humor, his questionable morals, and his wisdom The Nevernever is dying, human It grows smaller and smaller every decade Too much progress, too much technology Mortals are losing their faith in anything but science Even the children of man are consumed by progress They sneer at the old stories and are drawn to the newest gadgets, computers, or video games They no longer believe in monsters or magic As cities grow and technology takes over the world, belief and imagination fade away, and so do we The plot itself is fast paced and action filled There is a lot that goes on in this novel typically, I hate it I like things to stay in one place Rapid changes in settings are so often poorly done and lose my interest and credibility, and just confuse the hell out of me This is not the case with The Iron King Everything is paced as it should, and though the book moves rapidly, I never feel lost I m so glad I reread this book it only improves in the reading.

DNFI tried I really, really tried.But this just wasn t my jam I picked it up at least three different times and no dice Onward XXXXXXXXXWhen you are interested in a book by an author you ve never read beforewhich is priced at 7.99and you discover your library has it in ebook form for FREE.

I ve had The Iron Fey series sitting on my Audible shelf for quite some time Paranormal Fantasy isn t my go to genre, but I was curious about this series after seeing some great reviews for it Yet, every time that I was in the mood for this type of story there always seemed to be another book released that was higher up on my TBR priorities I finally got around to listening to this audiobook on a recent cross country family road trip Since my children, as well as my 89 year old grandmother, were in the car, my usual smutty romance selections were off the table After all, I wouldn t want to be responsible for giving my grandmother a heart attack and I certainly wasn t prepared to answer any questions that might arise from my children related to something they might hear in a dark romance novel.Since this series is aimed at a younger audience, it ended up being the perfect time to give it a listen Other than a few mildly bad words, which were no cause for a freak out in my opinion, this book was clean enough for my girls ages 5 and 10 It also had enough adventure and suspense to keep the adults in the car engaged in the story While my youngest daughter wasn t exactly following the story closely, she did pay enough attention to pick up on the general theme and point out who her favorite characters were I m not sure that I could ve found another series that would have worked as well for our group.The story centers on a high school girl, Meghan Chase She is a heroine that is easy to relate to because she is flawed, but strong and personable I appreciated the fact that Meghan was a good role model for young girls She had the same insecurities of all young, teenage girls, but was able to rise above and even make light of teenage drama Topics, such as bullying and body image were addressed, but not in an over the top, in your face kind of way that reeks of an after school TV special The author addressed these issues subtly and without much fanfare.Meghan s reality changes overnight, when she discovers that her younger brother, Ethan, has been taken into the Nevernever A changeling has taken his place in the human world, while the real Ethan has been taken Everything that Meghan thought she knew was wrong The man that raised her, and disappeared when she was six, wasn t really her father at all She is the daughter of Oberon, the King of the Summer Court It ends up that Meghan is half faerie and not entirely human at all.In addition, her neighbor best friend, Robbie, is really Puck , the faerie of legends He had been sent by her father to watch over her for years Revealing her true identity to her, Puck goes on to become her tour guide through the faerie world.As Puck and Meghan set out to find Ethan and return him to the human world, they embark on a series of adventures Along the way, Meghan meets Ash, the Winter Prince, who becomes her love interest Meanwhile, she must carry on in spite of the contempt of the Summer Queen, Titania and other members of the faerie courts that look down upon her because she is a half breed.From start to finish, I was captivated with this story The characters were easy to relate to and the storyline was compelling I was lost in the fantastical world that Julie Kagawa created It was absolutely magical Check out of my reviews at www.bookaddicthaven.com

Wow As many others have stated, at first glance THE IRON KING appears to be your typical faerie book Summer court Check Winter court Check Shakespeare esque characters Check Yes there are similarities, but these lie only in the bare backbone of the story Yes there are those faerie courts and A Midsummer Night s Dream characters Oberon, Titania, etc , but they are necessary for the make up of the story From here on out, Julie Kagawa makes THE IRON KING shine in the already faerie inundated YA world Julie Kagawa writes in a style that is easy and refreshing to read She doesn t weigh you down with a barrage of information, rather, she slowly immerses the reader into her world, page after page Descriptions flow off the page and her tone is never stilted It s narrated in first person point of view, through Meghan s eyes, and I found this great because she had a voice that was believable and easy to relate to.The thing I loved most about THE IRON KING was its multiple story lines Meghan embarks on a journey that takes her far and wide, to diverse regions of Faeryland and all over America There wasn t just one set plot where she travels into the Summer court and stays there for the rest of the novel Nope, her quest brings her from one plot to another, from one crisis to a new one, from one mission to the next.THE IRON KING has a action and adventure feel to it, though that is not to say it didn t have romance There was a love story, but it did not overwhelm the fantasy like realm of the Nevernever faery land and its unique and engaging inhabitants First off, I love the feel of THE IRON KING It s like a quest in the sense that Meghan, the main character, encounters all sorts of odd and malicious beings along the way as she nears her main goal Unlike many faerie books out today, there was SO much going on And in a good way The story wasn t just about faerie drama and court intrigue, although there was a good portion of that in the beginning, which was actually done in a superb way There was a lot of fighting, which was written well so it wasn t boring usually, I dislike fight scenes for their dull descriptions and constant sword clashing, etc, but in THE IRON KING, I was actually very very enthralled The romance was very well done as well There was a love triangle going on, although that was subtle and not very well emphasized because one love interest took the backseat to the other, in a good way I love the push and pull, the chemistry between Meghan and the guy, which was very believable and made it all the satisfying when they admit their feelings, sorta And the characters I loved them all, which is a rarity in these types of books, where only the main character and one or two others stand out and all others are only fleetingly described or mentioned Meghan has a companion in a Cheshire like cat named Grimalkin, whom I adored, and all the other characters were well fleshed out to the point where I could visualize them in my mind and understand their actions THE IRON KING is reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland in that there is this feeling of being in an alternate and extremely quirky and surreal setting, which is true to an extent because a lot of the novel takes place in the Nevernever, home to the faeries.Although THE IRON KING is only 368 pages, it was 368 pages of captivating adventure and page turning action I wholeheartedly recommend this to all those who love faeries, and ok everyone else too

NO I almost DNF ed this one It just irritated me to no end But then I met Ash He deserves the 3 stars here 3You know, sometimes less is .The Iron Fey universe obviously doesn t know of the concept less Up to 40%, the heroine sees about a 150 different creatures, a bit less in the second half but overall she sees a million of them and they re all described like crazy I know, now you re thinking, Blacky you re a moron or your brain is non existent for not being able to cope with a hundred million creatures in one book, but let me tell you how it is to read about it.she sees a weird creature it looks like this and this and does that and that.next page.she sees two creatures that try to kill her and they look like this and this and do that and that.next page.she sees one creature that helps them and he looks like this and this and his house looks like that and thatnext page.she sees a horde of creatures that try to kill her next page.she sees a weird creature that saves her and it looks like this and thisshe again sees a bunch of creatures that try to kill hernext page.she sees 5 different creatures that look weird and scare hernext page.she gets warned not to go to a dangerous place where the weird creatures live but she STILL goes to the dangerous place and those weird creatures try to kill hernext page and so, by the time we get to her actually meeting Ash, there is absolutely NOTHING happening in the book except her seeing creatures and those creatures trying to kill her or save her Seriously, absolutely NOTHING happening.Though, even after she meets Ash, she still gets creatures that try to kill her all over again and some new ones that try to save her.So basically, all the story in this book is the world building that was just over extensive because after the 100th creature I met, I didn t give a sh t about any other and the she saw the I wanted to stop reading.Yeah, I have a problem but damn, I just couldn t take it.Another problem here is that she meets Ash at about view spoiler 45 hide spoiler

Before everything else,I need to express my strong belief in the existence of fairies,because they would perish without our dreams and thoughts and hopes.I ve got your back guys,I will not let you fade into oblivion Yeah,Mom,Ethan s turned into a monster and my best friend thinks he s a faery.How was your day As you can see,Meghan s life is not that simple.She used to be the girl that lived by the swamp,an outcast,until her 16th birthday,when a creature disguised as her little brother tried to eat her and her best friend revealed to her that he is an ancient faery protecting her.Then she visited the Summer Court,found out her father was a Faery King,his wife was not particularly happy about her and she started a dangerous journey to find her baby brother,accompanied by trickster Puck,a talking cat and a brooding dark prince.I know,the brooding dark prince part is the best Ladies and Felines,welcome to Tir Na Nog.Land of endless winter and shitloads of snow Well they didn t stay there long enough but I liked Puck s sarcasm in this line The Iron King is the first book of a very promising series,and a different one.Fairies are not your typical creatures of extraordinary beauty and wisdom except the royal ones ,trolls and goblins and gremlins pop up from every corner,the legends of the monster inside your closet are all true,and they exist as long as us mortals believe in them,as long as our imagination runs wild and our minds are open to the impossible and inhuman.I really liked Julie Kagawa s writing and fresh ideas I guess the only reason I didn t give the Iron King 5 stars is that it took me a while to adjust to its world and magic,but once I was sucked in,I enjoyed it very much My favorite character has to be drum roll Ash of course ,he is the result of the perfect combination brooding,dark,sometimes an asshole with a tragic back story who needs someone to make him feel alive again.And gorgeous.Of course.Puck was an entertaining addition,but I sense a love triangle in the making and I hope it will not cause unnecessary drama.Grimalkin the sassy cat was a pleasant surprise,a mysterious being with vast knowledge and hidden agenda.And then,there is Meghan.Thankfully she is not annoying and I actually like her,despite her being stubborn and immature at times.All in all,a very good first book in an interesting series,I m looking forward to the next one.And note this,Ash is mine.

I have a vague memory from my early teen years that haunts me to this day there I was, reading The Iron King as it had just been released I turned the last page, smiling to myself, and thought, Wow, what a fantastic book Meghan is so amazing and smart, and Ash is so dreamy I wish I had two handsome, perfect men chasing after me Then, out of nowhere, a disembodied hand materialized in front of me and smacked the living daylights out of my face, like so The Supernatural Slapping Incident of 10 has remained a mystery to me until today, when, upon rereading the Iron King for a BR, I unraveled the very fabric of the universe to reach back in time and give mini me a big ol slap for ever enjoying this book.Because, seriously, what is there to like The plot is clusterfuck of cliches, the heroine someone get me a bag to retch in and the love interests are two barely distinguishable heaps of garbage.So, Meghan She s just turned 16 but has enough entitlement to fill an Olympic pool She spends her days swooning over the football captain and complaining about how her hard working parents won t buy her new jeans Then she sets off on an adventure into the Nevernever, aka Fairyland, to rescue her baby brother and we get a real glimpse at the unfathomable stupidity lurking inside her skull This bitch is DUMB.She makes binding promises to untrustworthy strangers Favorite phrase I ll give you anything you want If there s danger, you can bet she ll freeze up and wait for handsome man to save her.And tact is at the bottom of her skill list.That s all nothing against her biggest act of idiocy, however.Ladies, I ve said it before and I ll say it again Attempted murder is NOT SEXY .Meghan meets Ash, her love interest, for the first time and he tries to put an arrow through her face Her reaction Swooning and daydreaming about his physique NO No, honey, no The next time she meets him, he tells her multiple times he plans on killing her WTF We re supposed to buy that THIS is a love interest There s a lot of qualities I can forgive in a man in exchange for good looks MURDER IS NOT ONE OF THEM. FOR FUCKS SAKE GET A GRIP MEGHANIt s not that a problematic heroine is an automatic red flag In fact, an inherently flawed character is perfect for growth and development, to entertain readers with struggle and journey and so on But when the author presents an awful human being as protagonist and then condones her qualities, presenting her as a role model, that s when we have issues Meghan shows no sign of improvement and the tone of the book was never once negative towards her flaws Instead of facing consequences of her idiotic behavior, Meghan flounces through the world protected by her strong men and is rewarded for every misstep This isn t a basis for YA fantasy, this is garbage Meghan s second love interest, Puck, isn t much better he s been in love with her all along picture me shocked at the reveal but is too chickenshit to act on his feelings and instead waits until she shows interest in someone else, then gets sulky and angry about it If he were a human he d already have thrown around the words friendzone and slut Yeah, he s that kind of guy And then the plot I can t take the plot seriously Most of the problems arose because of Meghan s single digit IQ and had to be solved by the charming love interests The book checks off every overused YA trope on the list Love triangle, powerful but inexperienced heroine, falling for the bad boy prince, you name it I m just so sick of the whole spiel Take a pointer from me and try a different book I ve heard even Julie Kagawa s other series are better than this Save yourself the stress and popped blood vessels.

Final rating 3 5 starsFinal rating for the whole series 3.5 5 stars To venture in a world of The Iron Fey, you must proceed with this knowledge 1 This is not a book about fairies like these Imagine evil well, not all of them are evil ELVES, so called FAERY or plural FEY.2 They don t have wings well, most of them don t and there are many of them like dryads, goblins, gremlins, kelpies, ogres and so on and on.3 In this world, fey are not to be trusted They will always go for favors and bargains and never ever never say thank you to fey.4 There is a neverending hate between Summer Seelie and Winter Unseelie court.5 There is one extremely annoying, stupid and idiotic heroine, but nevertheless interesting just ignore her and you will be fine.6 You will without any doubt fall in love with two heroes they will make you swoon.Now this was interesting experience I love fey, they are my favorite paranormal creatures and yes, i love and will always love evil fey ideas and i love Julie Kagawa since her Blood of Eden series , which was fantastic I know this book was one of her earlier works, but i can t help but compare it to BoE series While BoE has strong and kickass heroine, this series has weak and angsty one and it really bothered me, which is why i gave it one star less Still, it was quite interesting and it kept my attention so it was bearable to ignore Meghan Well, i am overreacting she wasn t that bad she just bored me sometimes Alas, i heard that the other sequels get really and much better, so i am still having high expectations, while i lowered them for this one But it surprised me and made me eager for The world building was quite interesting The Nevernever world was really well done and i love how Kagawa always describes the surroundings in quite a good amount of details I could imagine everything perfectly and that is a big from me I just can t help but admire Kagawa s writing style _.And like every other young adult book this one too has a love triangle And i didn t mind it God, what is happening to me, i used to hate love triangles But hereit makes it even difficult because there are Ash and Robin aka Puck, which i will refer as Robin because its prettier and i love them both The last 40% of the book i absolutely loved which is the reason i didn t give the first book less than 4 stars.P.s everytime Ash and Puck argue or fight, it reminds me of this STORY Once upon a time, there was a normal girl She was living in a poor family, with her mother, stepfather and step brother She had best friend who was always there for her Meghan chase thought she was normal, she lived normally, she has a good life, even though it sometimes wasn t kind Her father disappeared when she was young and her mother married another And gave birth to Ethan, Meghan s step brother She likes hanging out with Robbie, her best friend He was always there for her, no matter what But when she finds out that her brother Ethan was kidnapped, and that a changeling was put in his place, she doesn t know what to do She learns from Robbie that he was kidnapped by a Fey and that he can help her bring him back But its so hard to believe in it until he takes her to Nevernever, homeland to all Fey.For those who took interest in fey, then you heard of Seelie and Unseelie courts, some of the names like Mab, Oberon and Titania, the fairies fear of iron and metal And add all those supernatural creatures like dryads, goblins, gremlins, kelpies, ogres and so on It s all in here, waiting for you to go and be sucked into it just like Meghan was CHARACTERS Meghan The main character and narrator of this story Once a normal girl, she finds out that she is not what she thought she was She was never prepared for what would happen to her and it makes her miserable, sad and devastated But she is not giving up she would do anything to get people she loves back, even if it means making bad choices Yeah, Mom, Ethan s turned into a monster and my best friend thinks he s a faery How was your day In a way, i understood Meghan, she was alone, she was afraid and it was all knew to her And unknown And it is scary when you are thrown in a world you know nothing of, and when you don t know the rules Puck Robin Goodfellow Robin was Meghan s best friend in our world he is a fey and he was sent to protect Meghan And he would do anything for Meghan Even break the rules I guess the sacrifice of my dignity is the only thing that will save us now The things I endure for love The Fates laugh at my torment He was amazing character, extremely fun, sarcastic but not so kind eitherespecially to his enemies I loved all his comments, and he made me laugh so many times and he was just awesome Ash Ash, son of Mab, the queen of the Unseelie Winter court Ash, the third Unseelie prince and enemy to the Summer Seelie court Ash, the completely stubborn, sometimes evil SOB but also kind, brave and horrifically awesome Combat doesn t have to be with swords Emotions can be deadly weapons, and knowing your enemy s breaking point can be key to winning a battle Ash sigh i am in love At first, i kind of hated him, but as the story progressed i couldn t help but fall in love little, slowly and in the end completely Grimalkin The true hero of the story for me would be Grimalkin the cat Always there to make bargains, promises and save the day And he keeps many many mysteries and secretbecause I am a cat, purred Grimalkin Sigh.why don t you turn into a sexy prince so i can fall in love with you too Everyone else Oberon meeeeeeeeeeeeeh, you didn t give me enough reason to like you.Titania erm coughbitchcough Mab you are not better than them eitherbut we shall see PEthan cuuuuuuuuuuute and the rest bla bla bla too tired to write and i would just spoil the story OVERALL Loved it I love everything related to fairies and this was nice addition to my fairy mania Anyway, i look forward to other books and for Ash and Puck REVIEW S RELATED TO THIS BOOK The Iron King The Iron Fey, 1 Winter s Passage The Iron Fey 1.5 The Iron Daughter The Iron Fey, 2 The Iron Queen The Iron Fey, 3 Summer s Crossing Iron Fey, 3.5 The Iron Knight Iron Fey, 4 Iron s Prophecy The Iron Fey, 4.5 The Lost Prince The Iron Fey Call of the Forgotten, 1 The Iron Traitor The Iron Fey Call of the Forgotten, 2 The Iron Warrior The Iron Fey Call of the Forgotten, 3 This review can be found on my blog infinity of time.blogspot.com also known as

Something was happening, something strange and creepy and terrifying, and the scariest part of all was that it wore a familiar, ordinary face 3 1 2 stars.While The Immortal Rules series is still Kagawa s winner for me so far, I was actually really pleasantly surprised by this book Almost everyone I know picked up this series a few years back and I deliberately avoided it YA paranormal with a love triangle Yeah, no thank you But I ve been meaning to see if I was wrong ever since I really enjoyed The Immortal Rules and this first installment is bursting with Kagawa s trademark humour and a likable cast of secondary characters It s far from perfect but I ve heard it s the weakest book of the series We shall see.The foundations of the story aren t breaking any new ground an awkward teenager called Meghan Chase discovers that the world isn t quite what she first expected when her brother gets kidnapped and taken to the Nevernever Fey world She must then go rescue him with the help of her friend Puck and other interesting creatures she meets along the way Of course, things aren t that simple and Meghan uncovers a bunch of dark secrets that have remained hidden in the Nevernever for years.Despite the familiar premise, The Iron King had a completely different atmosphere to most of the YA paranormal genre A lot of the genre is very loosely based in fantasy and focused around the central romantic angst, which this book wasn t, in my opinion It has a very Alice down the rabbit hole or A Midsummer Night s Dream kind of feel to it, almost dreamlike at times and full of magic and illusions There is some romance, of course, like when Meghan tries to convince herself that Ash is definitely not Mr Sexy That is Ash, prince of the Unseelie Court He tried to kill Puck, and he might try to kill you, as well He is not sexy He s not But I think what I like most about Kagawa s work is that she creates a wonderful balance between dark, fast paced survival stories, and hilariously charismatic characters I admit that this story gets a little messy at times with the influx of every paranormal Fey like creature imaginable, popping up one after the other and causing drama, but I think the series may have been finding its footing.My love for the characters started with Puck, whose sense of humour was EXACTLY the kind I love Charming, Puck commented, gazing around in distaste I love the barren, dead feel they re going for Who s the gardener, I wonder I d love to get some tips and Oh, we re playing nice now Shall we have tea first Brew up a nice pot of kiss my ass I m sure Kagawa is going to try and persuade me to change my mind, but Puck is so much my type than Mr Broody smoldering gaze Ash I ve said before that I can be sold on a love triangle if it s told well and I think this is one I could get invested in And then there s Grimalkin I am a cat, Grimalkin replied, as if that explained anything Kagawa put an hilarious, completely lovable, frequently sarcastic cat in her book How could I not love it He is easily my favourite character so far, Puck coming in a close second The only character that hasn t wowed me yet is Meghan herself, but it also took a while for me to like Allison in The Immortal Rules so hopefully the MC love will come later.As I said, this book is far from perfect but it is enjoyable, fast paced fantasy And sometimes that s all I want.Blog Leafmarks Facebook Twitter Instagram Tumblr